During the holidays, Westporters responded generously to pleas to help Lyman, Ukraine.
In less than 3 weeks, residents contributed $252,000 to help the ravaged, war-torn town — our new sister city.
Now Westport’s Police and Fire Departments have added their resources.
On Friday Police Chief Foti Koskinas, Fire Chief Michael Kronick and their staffs packed dozens of boxes. They’re filled with crucial gear for their first responder counterparts in Lyman.
Among the items: gas masks, bulletproof vests and helmets, tourniquets, radios, electrical charging units, wool hats, gloves and baseball caps.
All are vital to helping Lyman’s police officers, firefighters and public safety personnel do their jobs. The Russians occupied the town for 5 months. When they left, they took or destroyed nearly every piece of emergency gear.
From left: Fire Chief Michael Kronick, Police Chief Foti Koskinas and 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker, with bulletproof vests, helmets and other gear, ready for shipment to Lyman, Ukraine.
Koskinas and Kronick learned of the urgent need in Zoom calls with Lyman’s police chief. They were arranged by Westporter Brian Mayer, founder of Ukraine Aid International.
Stunned by the bleak situation, Koskinas, Kronick and their deputies scoured their inventory for items that might help. They found plenty of equipment that was not longer used, but still quite serviceable. There is no cost to Westport taxpayers.
Radios and other communications equipment, heading soon to Lyman. (Photos courtesy of Jennifer Petrosinelli, Westport Fire Department)
First Selectwoman Jen Tooker joined police and fire officials yesterday at the police garage, as they assembled the packages.
Delivery to Lyman will be facilitated Mayer and his brother Marshall, and Liz Olegov of Alex21, Ukraine Aid International’s on-the-ground partner.
Donations to Lyman are still welcome. Just click here for the credit card “Donate” button. Click the “I want to support” box; then select “Support for the City of Lyman.” You can also scroll down on that page for other donation options (mail, wire transfer and Venmo.) Or you can donate directly, via Stripe (click here).
Great job police and fire dept in helping the people In Ukraine. I guess Jen was there just to be in another picture.
I’m grateful to Nate Gibbons for opening the door to the equipment donation from the Westport fire dept. He reached out to me early last year and asked if I could get fire equipment to Ukraine.
I told him I didn’t know how to get it there but I’d figure it out and did. Together with his help I got a pipeline to ship direct over $50,000 dollars of equipment from Westport Fire Dept. & Stamford fire dept. to Ukraine in a hurry. Glad to see establishing a Sister City with Lyman opened the door wider. Thank you Jen Tooker.